NCJ Number
162699
Journal
Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Volume: 86 Issue: 1 Dated: (Fall 1995) Pages: 247-256
Date Published
1995
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This article reviews the book Lethal Laws by Jay Simkin, Aaron Zelman, and Alan Rice, who argue that, as a practical matter, governments cannot commit genocide except on an effectively disarmed population.
Abstract
The volume contributes to our knowledge of foreign firearms regulation by gathering English translations of historical firearms laws from Germany, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the People's Republic of China, Ottoman Turkey, Guatemala, Uganda, and Cambodia. In each of these countries, genocide was committed by agents of the government during the last 100 years. This volume is the second book from Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership to argue that the inclination of sovereign governments to abuse power, including the infliction of geno-politicide upon racial, ethnic, and other minorities, represents a sound basis for sanctioning an armed population capable of at least rudimentary self-defense. However, this volume will probably not be the means for carrying on this conversation due to the authors' inexcusable bad manners and bombastic comparisons of President Clinton to Hitler. The relevant policy question is whether the benefits of civilian firearms possession, including their effect in discouraging government excess, are great enough in comparison with the costs to justify allowing the civilian population to be armed. The authors of this book, despite their reputation for shrillness, have placed much new and thought-provoking material at the disposal of a public in distinct need of reflecting on it. Footnotes